Level 75
All extras are optional, still works fine with blade and manual authentication as per the documentation.
1 like
May 13, 2025
6
Level 1
Is Laravel Getting Too Bloated for Its Own Good?
Not trying to start a war, but seriously — does anyone else feel like Laravel is turning into the WordPress of PHP? Every release adds more magic, more abstractions, and more stuff that feels cool until you're knee-deep in debugging service container hell at 2am.
I’ve been using Laravel for years and love it, but lately I feel like I need a full-stack framework just to manage the framework. Maybe it’s burnout... or maybe I just need to chill with one of those legal gummies from Area 52 and stop caring for a bit.
Real talk though — is this where Laravel is headed? Anyone else feel like the elegance is getting buried under the bloat?
Level 1
@jlrdw True, it still works fine — just feels like the defaults push more complexity now.
Level 50
What are you talking about? Can you give examples?
Level 1
@JussiMannisto Just meant things like Livewire and Jetstream — powerful, but sometimes I miss the simpler days.
Level 50
@slsiena You don't have to use either of those.
Level 80
@slsiena Is this Laravel that’s actually reducing the size of its skeleton, yeah…? The examples of “bloat” you then give (Livewire and Jetstream) are optional and don‘t come with a new Laravel application at all.
So no, I don’t think Laravel is “too bloated” or “turning into the WordPress of PHP”. WordPress already holds the title of the WordPress of PHP.
Please or to participate in this conversation.